BiasAlerts

Discounting the pro-life argument of a planned Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow's mother, Joy Behar told the audience of the January 26 "View" that the Florida Gators quarterback just as easily could have been a "rapist pedophile." [audio available here ] "What are people flippin' out about," bewildered moderator Whoopi Goldberg - herself an ardent pro-choice activist - asked. "The only argument against any of it is, that, you know, he could just as easily become some kind of a rapist pedophile. I mean, you don't know what someone's going to be," Behar answered, adding:... continue reading

After years of CNN touting itself as "the most trusted name in news," a survey released Tuesday from Public Policy Polling (PPP) discovers that among major news sources, only the Fox News Channel enjoys a plurality of respondents (49%) saying they "trust" the network (vs. 37% who disagree). For CNN, only 39% trust the network's news product, vs. 41% who do not, and the distrust is even higher when the public is asked about the broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. And, as Time media writer James Poniewozik notes in a January 26 item "PPP, in fact, is a mainly... continue reading

Previewing the State of the Union on Wednesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith spoke with former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who claimed the GOP "made a decision a year ago that they weren't going to cooperate on anything." Smith replied: "I don't think you can say what you just said and look at what happened with health care, especially in the last month, and be honest about it." Dunn, who just recently stepped down as communications director to the Obama White House, disregarded Smith's challenge: Harry, I disagree with that, mostly because I was working at the... continue reading

The Washington Times's Jennifer Harper picked up on a new study from the non-partisan Center for Media and Public Affairs showing President Obama getting much more flattering news coverage from ABC, CBS and NBC (46% positive vs. 54% negative) during his first year in office than did Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush, all of whom received roughly three times more bad press than good from those same broadcast networks. But one network did offer scrutiny roughly equal to that provided by the old networks in the past, according to CMPA: the Fox News Channel. Reviewing the first thirty... continue reading

As the new year began, The New York Times offered a 780-word article to a protest for illegal immigrants - with four marchers walking from Miami to Washington . But on Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans gathering in Washington for Friday's annual March for Life received - part of a sentence. In the Saturday paper on January 23, an article on the trial facing the killer of late-term abortionist George Tiller on page A-11 featured this note in paragraph nine of a 12-paragraph dispatch by Monica Davey : Testimony began the same day that abortion rights groups celebrated, and... continue reading

At the top of Tuesday's CBS Early Show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez highlighted the latest attempt at populism by the Obama administration: "President Obama calls for a big spending freeze and focuses on plans to help the struggling middle class , but does he have the political support he needs?" Moments later, co-host Harry Smith introduced the story with a similar declaration: "President Obama will try and calm voter anger during tomorrow's State of the Union address. He'll announce plans to cut the growing federal deficit and help the struggling middle class." Writing for the Heritage Foundation blog, The Foundry ,... continue reading

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos played defense for the White House on Tuesday. While talking with John McCain about Obama's 2010 proposals, he sounded annoyed that the Senator's ideas for job creation would include tax cuts: " But, those tax cuts are going to increase the deficit, aren't they, sir? " After McCain declared his opposition to Democrat spending proposals, the host pressed, "If you're against that, what job creation proposals are you for?" Continuing the Democrat-friendly theme of McCain as obstructionist, Stephanopoulos quoted Harry Reid's attack on McCain in Sunday's New York Times: "'My amazement has been John McCain... continue reading

Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Tuesday's Good Morning America and lectured host George Stephanopoulos, "You just have to relax and remember that not everyone's a politician. And you don't have to grill them." The liberal comedienne needn't have worried. Stephanopoulos only gently approached O'Donnell and the topic of her new gay-themed HBO documentary. After being dressed down by O'Donnell, the GMA host offered this softball question about A Family Is a Family Is a Family: " So, tell us about this amazing documentary ." He quickly followed up to see if the query was benign enough: "How was that?" Although O'Donnell... continue reading

Diane Sawyer's interview with President Barack Obama wasn't nearly as sycophantic as the one conducted last Wednesday by George Stephanopoulos , with Sawyer posing mostly informational inquiries about the direction he'll set out in the State of the Union speech as she also raised the huge deficits and whether all future meetings about health care will "be on C-SPAN" as he had pledged? But she presumed some of the anger at him wasn't his fault - "People think you must say at the end of the day, this is not who I was in 2008, these deals with Nebraska, with... continue reading

The front page of Monday's Washington Post featured an adulatory tribute to President Barack Obama's brilliance in gathering information so he can take care of the little people, a tribute enabled by sycophantic assessments from friends and those on Obama's payroll which reporters Anne Kornblut and Michael Fletcher eagerly advanced. "The seeker as problem-solver," read the front page headline which carried this sub-head: "In his decision-making, Obama turns to both the famous and the unknown." (Online headline: "In Obama's decision-making, a wide range of influences.") Headline across the top of the jump page: "In his decision-making, a diversity of inspiration."... continue reading

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